Police: Man in custody in Delaware Co. baby kidnapping

Officials fear baby dead

Investigators are searching for a 7-month old baby who was kidnapped from a Delaware County home and may have been killed, police said.

The kidnapping suspect, Ummad Rushdi, is the boyfriend of the child's mother and took the infant, Hamza Ali, from Upper Darby Twp., to central Pennsylvania, police said.

Police in York, about 90 miles to the west, are searching for the child but fear he may have been killed and then buried, Upper Darby police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said.

Rushdi, 31, was arrested around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday and is facing kidnapping and other charges. Chitwood said he was being returned to Upper Darby and that he was not being cooperative. It wasn't immediately known if he had an attorney.

Police got a call from the infant's mother Tuesday night and she reported that she, Rushdi and the child had been visiting Rushdi's parents in Upper Darby over the weekend, Chitwood said.

She said Rushdi, whom she has known for three weeks, took the baby early Sunday morning and that she believed he was heading back to York, where they both live.

When police found Rushdi in York, he tried to run out the back door of a home, Chitwood said.

Officers arrested him and found the car he was driving abandoned, he said. When Rushdi was arrested, he had $800 in cash, a knife and handcuffs in his possession, Chitwood said.

Chitwood said Rushdi's brother told police he believed that Rushdi killed the child and buried him in a field in York.

"We're hoping to find the baby alive," but authorities fear the child is dead, Chitwood said.

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